Peter Ball, pictured here in 1992, was not charged when allegations of abuse against him first emerged the following year.
Photograph: PA

Victims of a former bishop who sexually abused more than 18 young men have accused the Church of England, the police and senior prosecutors of presiding over an establishment cover-up that prevented him from facing justice for decades.

Details of how Peter Ball, a former bishop of Lewes and Gloucester, escaped justice 22 years ago can finally be revealed after he pleaded guilty on Tuesday to two counts of indecent assault and one charge of misconduct in public office, relating to the sexual abuse of 16 young men over a period of 15 years from 1977 to 1992.

Ball was not charged when the allegations of abuse against him first emerged in 1993. Instead the police and senior figures in the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), then led by the late Barbara Mills, agreed to issue Ball with a caution.

This was done with the knowledge of the then archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey. Ball proceeded to resign as bishop and went to live in a property lent to him by his friend the Prince of Wales.

Since 1993, those who accused Ball of abuse have struggled for recognition. Phil Johnson, who alleged 19 years ago that Ball had sexually abused him as a 13-year-old boy, said the last two decades amounted to an establishment cover-up.

Former bishop admits sexually abusing young men

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“He is very well connected,” said Johnson. “There has been pressure on the police ever since 1993 when all this first emerged. It’s been going on for years.

“There are many, many victims who have fought for a long time to see him face justice and have not been believed. The church and the establishment have colluded in covering up bishop Peter Ballʼs offending at the highest level over very many years.”

Evidence presented to pre-trial hearings in the Ball case, which can now be reported, reveal that when allegations of abuse emerged in 1993, CPS lawyers said there was “sufficient admissible, substantial and reliable evidence” of indecent assault and gross indecency. Ball, however, was given a caution and escaped a trial and public scrutiny.

Pre-trial evidence also showed that Ball, while still the bishop of Gloucester, said a police officer had reassured him with the words: “Bishop, this is all over.”

Statements submitted to the court in the pre-trial hearings included one from Carey explaining his intervention in the case. He said in a written statement that he had picked up the telephone to a senior CPS director he knew in relation to the Ball case in 1993.

He said he was told the caution meant that if other allegations from the past emerged against Ball they would not be pursued in future.

“I was worried that if any other allegations were made it would reignite a police investigation,” Carey said in his statement. “I was told quite categorically that any past indecency matters would not be taken further.”

Carey said the senior CPS official told him: “As far as we are concerned he has resigned. He is out of it. We are not going to take anything any further.”

The CPS outlined the deal they were offering in a letter to Ball that read: “The view is taken that there is sufficient admissible, substantial and reliable evidence available to support your client for offences of indecent assault and gross indecency.

“Having regard to all the circumstances however the Crown would be prepared to allow disposal less than prosecution, namely a caution for an offence of gross indecency … as an alternative to prosecution.”

The CPS has denied the caution in any way represented immunity from further prosecutions if more allegations emerged. Ball told the court, however, that he had been reassured there would be no further action in future.

At a pre-trial hearing this year, where Ball appeared frail and weakly spoken, he said: “After I took the caution I asked very clearly ‘does this include all other offences of the same nature before the time of the caution?’

“I was told very clearly that it did. I knew there were other people waiting in the wings who wished to accuse me. I have never disguised the fact that there could easily be allegations.

“It was a long time ago, my mind has deteriorated greatly and I cannot speak coherently. But I remember this in my confused mind because it was so important to me. I was so glad to get away. That was the last words of the policeman: ‘Bishop, this is all over.’”

After accepting the caution, Ball resigned from the church to plaudits from Carey, who called him a “highly gifted and original man”. He went to live with his twin brother, the bishop of Truro, and later moved into a property in Somerset provided by Prince Charles on the Duchy of Cornwall estate.

Although Ball had resigned, he continued working in churches until 2010, the Church of England having given him permission to officiate.

Over the next 19 years Ball’s name came up in at least three police investigations into sexual abuse by Church of England priests, but he was never charged. Allegations against him also surfaced in at least three official inquiries into decades of child protection failures in the diocese of Chichester, of which Lewes is part.

His arrest in 2012 came after a retired police officer, who was working as a safeguarding officer for the then archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, at Lambeth Palace, discovered files relating to abuse by Ball. She passed them to Sussex police and asked them to reopen their investigation. Ball was arrested at his home in Langport in November.

Ball was the most senior of a group of Church of England priests in the diocese of Chichester whose activities are only now being brought before criminal courts, many years after their victims first spoke out to the authorities.

As bishop of Lewes he presided over the parishes of East Sussex, including Eastbourne and Hastings, between 1977 and 1992. In 1960 he founded a monastic community, the Order of the Glorious Ascension, and as a result many young boys came into his care as novice monks over the years.

After years of low-profile investigation that went nowhere, there was a breakthrough in 2008 with the conviction of the Rev Colin Pritchard, a vicar in Bexhill. He pleaded guilty to four counts of indecent assault and three counts of indecency involving children aged 12 to 15 between 1979 and 1983. He was jailed for five years.

Another priest died before he was brought to justice. Roy Cotton became a priest in the diocese of Chichester in the 1970s despite having been convicted of a sexual offence against a child in 1953.

From the moment he was charged in 2014, Ball, now 83, claimed he was too ill to be interviewed or face trial. His lawyers argued unsuccessfully for months that he was not fit to stand trial. He appeared via video link from Somerset for all his court hearings.

Victims who have fought for more than 20 years to see him face justice were not at the Old Bailey on Tuesday when he finally admitted to the abuse.

One of his victims did not live to see the moment. Interviewed by the BBC in 2012, Neil Todd said the police inquiry was long overdue.

“It stayed with me throughout my life’s journey and even this far down the track it doesn’t feel like there’s any real closure,” he said. “It took a long time for people to be convinced the events that actually took place actually took place.”